Especially for those with VR.

What I am doing right now is pretending I have crash landed on a planet. First thing I do is pick a nice place to start then I want for the scene to fully load. The clouds always load last on atmospheric planets so wait a good while. If there is an atmosphere, get a windy youtube video (for example, this one is good for hot planets).

Now you look around, take in the surroundings. Imagine this is now your new home for goodness knows how long. Imagine what that is going to be like. Now get out your wing suit (or jet pack) and travel slowly across it. Look for a good camp site, take in the surroundings.

Eventually, change the time of day and imagine your first night on the planet.

[ltr]It's not a hugely long experience, but it isn't supposed to be. Space engine has a near infinite number of planet/atmosphere/sky combinations for you to do this, and it's a great way to really get a feel of each world, really understand it, experience it, fathom its size and scale.[/ltr]


[ltr]Maybe I am being childish, but it's doesn't take such a huge stretch of the imagination. [/ltr]


[ltr]Let me know what you guys do to turn this into a "game" and to immerse yourself in the universe [/ltr]

Hi  Dr. Kaii, I was just flying low altitude on a desert world while looking for a good spot to take some pics and my ship crash-landed on a completely surreal place. I posted some images in the image dump check them out here. Yes I use a lot of YT ambient stuff to further immerse myself - your choice of canyon wind sounds really added to my immersion. I have a 3 TV setup (5760x1080) which adds to the immersion - no VR for me because I want to have contact with the real world.

i sometimes pretend that there is some alien civilization on some planet and then start to launch rockets for the first time. i slowly press R like the rocket goes up. then i take images like its thier first time seeing thier planet from above. and something i deploy probes and pretend them to explore thier solar system with them. imagination can turn this sim to a game! 
also i deploy space telescopes (like the hubble model) and pretend the civilization to look into the universe and explore it. i do it with the page up key to zoom in to make it work somehow like a telescope and then watch distance galaxies like they take that images with thier telescope.
then they become interplanetary or interstellar civilization.
i remember i sometime pretended the civilization sending a flyby probe to the closest star from their home system. and then the probe took images of the planets like they are searching for life out there in the universe

I imagine in my mind, when I found that habitable desert planet a while back that it was a planet once inhabited by an intelligent race, but a great cataclysm destroyed all life on the planet but single celled. I imagine a colony ship veers off course and discovers the planet by accident, and sets up shop on the planet, before finding out that not all life was wiped out. 

I create a "home" system with one Earth-like terra with life in which a human civilization lives. Then, I write "journal entries" from the perspective of different people involved in the development of a space program set to explore the Universe. 

From a physicist that comes up with a "Theory of Curvature", to an engineer that, along with his team, builds an "Alcubierre drive", to the first team of astronauts that make a trip to the nearest star with a spaceship capable of going faster than light.

I also make those trips myself in Space Engine, by using the Free Camera with limited speed, and taking images that will later be included in an "Archive" of the missions.